Web survey of foster youth advisory boards in the United States

Havlicek, Judy; Lin, Ching-Hsuan; Villalpando, Fabiola

doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.11.023

Cited by 15 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…Importantly, a common thread in these approaches is a peer support and/or near-peer mentoring component, where young people with similar lived experience can normalize difficult circumstances and promote informal relationship-building and youth-directed service engagement. Additionally, foster youth advisory boards and related youth leadership development activities provide youth opportunities to work with similar peers, meet supportive adults, and share their lived experiences with child welfare system decision-makers to improve services (Forenza, 2016; Havlicek, Lin, & Villapando, 2016). …”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding support network capacity during the transition from foster care: Youth-identified barriers, facilitators, and enhancement strategies

Blakeslee

Best

2019

Children and Youth Services Review

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This study explores how foster care experiences can impact support network functionality as young people exit the foster care system. This can be conceptualized as a function of both network member capacity to provide adequate support to address young adult needs, and network stability, which reflects cohesion within and across relationships to facilitate consistent support over time. We conducted support network mapping and semi-structured interviews with youth in foster care aged 16-20 (N=22) and used theoretical thematic analysis to explore support barriers and facilitators in relation to the organizing concepts of support capacity and network stability. Overall, support capacity was limited by interpersonal difficulties inhibiting the presence and supportiveness of some network members (including family members, informal peer and community-based connections, and caseworkers), whereas network stability facilitated multidimensional support through strong and interconnected relationships with caregivers and service providers. Emergent network patterns reflected distinct subgroups of more and less functional support networks, and strategies for network enhancement focus on promoting youth-directed services and support, developing youth skills and opportunities to invest in informal relationships, and using network assessment to identify unmet support needs. Findings advance a framework for understanding how foster care impacts support network characteristics, and inform ongoing efforts to address resulting limitations through services and programming.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding support network capacity during the transition from foster care: Youth-identified barriers, facilitators, and enhancement strategies

Blakeslee

Best

2019

Children and Youth Services Review

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“…Each state has a youth advisory board tasked with making recommendations to their respective states child welfare systems. 75 However, none of these programs have been rigorously evaluated. The lack of knowledge about the functioning and proliferation of YEPs could be because child welfare systems are inherently paternalistic.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…44 In the twenty-first century, when foster youth in the United States band together to create something new, the innovation typically focuses on improving the child welfare system, changing foster care policies, or discussing issues related to the foster care system. 45 It is likely that youth in foster care have created their own leisure and entertainment programs-modern versions of the military troupes CAS attendees created. However, these leisure groups are not well-documented and therefore it is difficult to track the evolution of these entrepreneurial types of activities to compare them with the nineteenth-century initiatives.…”

Section: Asset-building and Leadership Opportunitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Children’s Aid Society

Batista

Johnson

2016

Journal of Family History

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The Children's Aid Society (CAS) was founded in 1853 to help impoverished and orphaned children. In the process of fulfilling its mission, CAS may have unwittingly planted some of the first participatory seeds that grew into youth empowerment, elements of which were eventually incorporated into parts of the modern US foster care system. Specific empowering aspects of CAS's include (1) providing asset-building opportunities, (2) adult facilitation of a prosocial environment, and (3) treating children as independent clients who helped shape the program. This article provides evidence of the participatory aspects of CAS using examples from nineteenth-century periodicals and annual reports.

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“…Emotional trauma, separation from family, frequent placement with different guardians, and school changes can leave young people feeling disempowered. These experiences, coupled with being dependent on the state to make decisions regarding current and future life options, may contribute to feelings of limited control over life circumstances and estrangement from society (Havlicek, Lin, & Villalpando, 2016;Kaplan, Skolnick, & Turnbull, 2009;Tweddle, 2007;Sommer, 1994;Van Alst, 2012).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There are many definitions and alternative names for youth empowerment, including positive youth development, youth power, youth voice, youth participation, youth engagement, youth agency, youth governance, and youth organizing (Havlicek et al, 2016). According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), youth empowerment is "the expansion of assets and capabilities of young people to participate in, negotiate with, influence, control, and hold accountable institutions that affect their lives" (Homans, 2002, p. 31).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Effects of Youth Empowerment Programs on the Psychological Empowerment of Young People Aging Out of Foster Care

Batista

Johnson

Friedmann³

2018

Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research

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This study examines the effects of youth empowerment programs (YEPs) on the psychological empowerment of young people aging out of foster care. Method: We used a two-group, cross-sectional survey to examine the effect of YEP participation on the psychological empowerment of youths aging out of Florida's foster care system. The study sample consisted of 193 young adults (99 YEP participants and 94 non-YEP participants), ages 18-24. Four dependent variables represented the 4 dimensions of psychological empowerment: perceived control, motivation to influence, sociopolitical skills, and participatory behavior. Results: YEP participants experienced significantly higher perceived control, motivation to influence their environments, self-efficacy, and participatory behavior than non-YEP participants even when controlling for age at program entry, gender, race, time in foster care, number of placements, and geographic location. Conclusions: Findings suggest that youth empowerment is possible in child welfare systems and may be beneficial to young people aging out of foster care. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.

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Web survey of foster youth advisory boards in the United States

Cited by 15 publications

References 46 publications

Understanding support network capacity during the transition from foster care: Youth-identified barriers, facilitators, and enhancement strategies

Understanding support network capacity during the transition from foster care: Youth-identified barriers, facilitators, and enhancement strategies

The Children’s Aid Society

The Effects of Youth Empowerment Programs on the Psychological Empowerment of Young People Aging Out of Foster Care

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